The number of foreign tourists visiting Taiwan is expected to increase to 2.1 million by the end of this quarter in a sign of the tourism sector’s recovery from COVID-19 pandemic doldrums, the Tourism Administration said yesterday.
Overall, tourism had a promising start in the first month of the year, reporting a 10.36 percent uptick in growth compared with the same month last year, a spokesperson said, citing immigration data.
This put the national target of attracting 10 million foreign visitors by the close of the year back in the government’s sights, they said.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Bureau of Tourism
Taiwan in January logged 650,000 international travelers, equivalent to 75 percent of the number in January 2019, the year before COVID-19’s global outbreak, they said.
Regions being targeted by the agency’s policies staged a stronger comeback as evidenced by the number of visitors hailing from North America and South Korea in January, which marked an increase to the figure from January 2019, they said.
Tourists from other priority markets in January reached 90 percent of their number before the pandemic, they said.
Since last year, Japanese and South Korean nationals amounted to 30 percent of the nation’s visitors and another 30 percent was accounted for by Southeast Asia and India, they said.
Tourists from the West — a growing market for Taiwanese tourism — as well as Hong Kong and Macau, accounted for the remaining 40 percent, the spokesperson said.
Taiwan’s success with Western tourists could be attributed to the agency’s policies including negotiating with United Airlines to open new flight routes, and opening tourism information centers in Paris, Vancouver and other major cities, the spokesperson said.
As a result, the number of US and Canadian nationals who visited Taiwan in January increased by 16.12 percent compared with the same month in 2019, they said.
The number of European tourists was up 11.17 percent compared with the same period in 2019 in a notable breakthrough for the tourism sector, they said.
The agency has invested heavily in promoting Taiwan’s image in South Korea, resulting in a near total recovery of tourism from that nation to pre-pandemic levels, they said.
The number of Japanese tourists visiting Taiwan last year was 64.78 percent of what it had been before COVID-19, they said.
The slump in Japanese consumer spending triggered by inflation was largely to blame for the tourism sector’s sluggish performance in that market, the spokesperson said.
The agency is promoting tourism in Taiwan via private sector partnerships and taking part in festivals in a bid to raise the nation’s profile, they said.
The short flight times between Taiwan and Japan, and comparatively low price point are potential assets for drawing in Japanese tourists, they said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS